Assets seized from successful drugs related investigations are funding a new West Midlands Police unit which has been tasked with substantially increasing the amount of money the force seizes each year.

If the unit is successful over a two-year pilot period it will be expanded. Currently £160,000 of seized assets is being used to hire three financial investigators, who have been recruited from the banking sector and an intelligence analyst who sit within the force’s Economic Crime team.

The amount of cash and assets seized by West Midlands Police has fallen, it says, due to losing over 2,000 officers since 2010. Cash forfeitures and confiscation orders relating to drugs criminality have dropped by 95% since 2012/13.

The Police and Crime Commissioner says all of the money seized will be put back into drug policy initiatives to further disrupt organised crime.

Depending on the type of powers used under the Proceeds of Crime Act, West Midlands Police will receive between 18.75% and 50% of the seized assets, with the Home Office and other agencies receiving the rest. The PCC is campaigning for these levels to be increased to encourage forces across the UK to further increase the number of seizures, which should reap rewards for all agencies.

The PCC is funding the team for an initial two years, using around £160,000 of money seized using the Proceeds of Crime Act per year to pay for it.

Across the country budgets for substance misuse services are no longer ring-fenced and have been cut by at least quarter in the last five years.

As well as funding the team’s running costs, additional money seized by the investigators will go towards funding drug support services in the West Midlands, helping to plug the gap after years of cuts.
The approach has been dubbed as Operation Pound.

Jenny Birch, Head of the Economic Crime Unit said: “The offenders we will be focusing on are driven solely by financial gains. They have no regard for the social or health impact they have on individuals or wider communities that they flood with their drugs. Seizing this money will allow us to undo some of the harm they have caused and end their profiteering.”